Founded in 1993 by brothers Tom and David Gardner, The Motley Fool helps millions of people attain financial freedom through our website, podcasts, books, newspaper column, radio show, and premium investing services.

The Boring Portfolio

PHILADELPHIA, PA, April 26, 1996 -- The NASDAQ extended its string to
seven consecutive record-setting days on Friday. And the Boring Portfolio
extended its string to 15 consecutive gains.

Friday was particularly kind to the Borefolio. It's value increased
by 1.57%, easily outperforming the major market averages. Our big winners
were Borders Group and Prime Medical Services, both of which hit new all-time
highs.

Borders advanced $ 2 5/8, to $33 3/8. The only news on the wires
referred to the grand opening of yet another Borders superstore, this time
in Carmel Mountain, CA. Although that story probably does not account for
the stock's sharp rise today (I suspect that some new earnings projections
by a Smith Barney analyst helped in that regard), the press release does
provide some insight into what sets Borders apart from its competitors. After
noting the new store's opening, the press release continues:

"According to Shelley Porter, Borders' Carmel Mountain community

relations coordinator, ... 'We don't just sell books and music here, Borders
is a community gathering place. People come to Borders to meet authors and
learn new things, kids come to do art projects, music lovers come for free
live performances, a lot of people come just to sit and talk with friends.
And, of course, many spend hours just sitting and reading among the stacks
of books.'"

That's not just press release puffery, folks. That's the real deal,
from my experience. Border's approach to customer service may help to account
for why BGP shares have advanced nearly 50% in less than two months.

The big news -- and it is indeed BIG news -- that propelled PMSI
to a new high today was the stock-halting report this morning that Prime
Medical would be acquiring privately held Lithotripters, Inc., of Fayetteville,
N.C., as part of PMSI's strategy to develop a national lithotripsy network.

As I understand it, this merger (efffective May 1) will more than
double PMSI in size and create the nation's largest lithotripsy company,
with operations in 31 states. According to the press release, the purchase
price is $88 million, comprised of $70 million in cash and 1,636,000 common
shares of PMSI.

To finance the acquisition, Bank of Boston and NationsBank have increased
Prime Medical's line of credit from $25 million to $90 million. PMSI will
write-off merger costs related to the acquisition of approximately $3 million
in 1996.

Lastly, I alert you to the fact that the Borefolio will be purchasing
200 shares of Zytec (NASDAQ: ZTEC) on Monday. Zytec designs and manufactures
custom electronic-power supplies for original equipment manufacturers in
the computer and other electronic industries, including IBM, Cisco Systems,
Hewlett-Packard, Xerox, Digital Equipment, Cabletron, Sun Micro, and more.

My intention in purchasing ZTEC is to make a typically Boring play
on the booming internetworking business -- buy stock in a company that makes
one of the most boring parts of hardware innards: the power supply box.

As you may note from the dateline at the top of this Borefolio update,
I'm out of town today, in Philadelphia. Consequently, I'm not able to provide
the full review of Zytec now. It will be available in the Boring Portfolio
section of The Motley Fool on Sunday evening, so that you may check it out
before the market opens on Monday.

As for Philadelphia, other than the fact that an afternoon thunderstorm
knocked out power for a couple of hours and put me out of action right as
my filing deadline loomed, it's a surprisingly (for me) interesting place.
Hmm-m-m. Maybe Philly could use some Zytec power supply stuff?